


Alphabet Soup (or, how to fall in love with your daughter's teacher without really trying)

by GayerThanATreeFullOfMonkeys



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daycare, Awkward Crush, Cas is a preschool teacher, Casual Sex, Confident Cas, Destiel endgame, Domestic Fluff, Emma is better than everyone, M/M, One Night Stands, Overprotective Dean, Pining Dean, Smitten Dean, but we get there eventually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-14
Updated: 2015-03-02
Packaged: 2018-02-25 08:19:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2614865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GayerThanATreeFullOfMonkeys/pseuds/GayerThanATreeFullOfMonkeys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean hadn't even wanted to send Emma to preschool.</p><p>But then Castiel Milton, AKA preschool teacher extraordinaire and much too pretty to be allowed in a school setting walks into his life and Dean's world is turned on it's head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a little something for you guys because I'm actually starting to work on a multi chapter fic (that people who enjoy my crowstiel stories will hopefully like!) so I will probably be busy with that for a bit!
> 
> The boys' ages are a little different from cannon, simply because I like having Dean be a bit older than Sam than he actually is. So Sam is 21 in this and Dean is 29.
> 
> Also, just so you all know, my personal headcannon for every AU Cas that I write is that he's pansexual and has tons of amazing casual sex so expect that from this story hah

Dean hadn't even wanted to send Emma to preschool.

He wanted to hold off on letting her out in to the big bad world for as long as he could but she was turning 4 in a month now and as his mother enjoyed reminding him "She can't stay your pampered little princess forever Dean."

He couldn't help it though.

Ever since her mother (an immature one night stand who had left in the middle of the night when Emma was a month old) had walked out he'd kept his daughter close, worried about everyone who smiled at his kid who wasn't his immediate family.

But then Bobby and Sam had agreed and Sam had even pulled out a pamphlet for a nearby preschool from his backpack (Dean had the horrible feeling that they'd been planning this for a while now) and so Dean agreed.

It would be good in the long run.

This meant that he could finally work as many hours at the garage as Bobby wanted him to, which meant more money for him and Emma and maybe his precocious little daughter would actually make some friends.

It doesn't start well.

On Em's first day of preschool when Dean is halfway through turning her tornado of strawberry blonde curls into something socially appropriate Bobby calls him in to work on some emergency case. So then he has to frantically call his mom, who (really, thank god for her) laughs lightly at his stressed voice and tells him that she's be there in 2 minutes and she'd pick Emma up later on as well.

Emma doesn't care.

Of course not.

She's 3 and has no idea how much the idea of preschool is freaking Dean out.

"Bye Daddy." She says over his bowl of cereal, depositing a milky kiss on his cheek when he leans down to hug her.

Still though, by the time he picks Emma up at his parents' house and they pull into their favorite Thai restaurant (his favorite because of the cute waitresses who blush when he smiles at them, her favorite because she gets to use the chopsticks as swords) he is interested to know how her day went.

"And I picked Cassie a flower and it was yellow and it was really hot out so I got sweaty!" She says with a wide grin directed at him.

Dean is a little taken aback to see his normally composed, articulate (for a toddler) kid acting so....well, normal. 'Must be what happens when you're actually around other kids.' He thought before he realized what his daughter had said and he smiled. "Cassie? Is that your new friend?"

Em' wrinkled her nose at him "No." She said slowly, like he was an idiot. "He's my teacher."

Dean wrinkles his nose right back at her, feeling his nerves from earlier start to build up again. "He? You have a boy teacher Em?"

"Yeah." She said, picking up her chopsticks and starting to jab at the napkin with it. "Anna is a teacher too but she's with crying babies all day." She sighed dramatically "We have puzzles at preschool, I wish we had puzzles at home daddy."

Dean automatically pulled the napkin out of her reach before it ripped. "Yeah, yeah. Remind me when I get paid."

Just because he hadn't reacted in the restaurant didn't mean he still wouldn't.

The second they are through the door and Emma is handed a coloring book and crayons Dean has his phone out and is dialing Sam's number.

"Hey Dean." Comes his brother's voice. He sounds distracted and Dean can hear laughter in the background. He almost rolls his eyes, Sam was such a college kid, it was really ironic the way that their roles had been switched.

"Why didn't you fucking tell me that Em would have a guy teacher?" He asked, trying not to let his anger color his voice too badly.

"Swear jar, Daddy." Came a small voice behind him and Dean flashed a guilty smile at Emma before digging in his pocket and handing her a quarter to put in the nearly full jar on the kitchen table.

"It's not a big deal, Dean." Sam replied, sounding affronted. "I hear Cas is an awesome teacher and you can go check it out for yourself if you're worried. Besides, it's kinda offensive that you think only women can teach kids."

This time Dean really does roll his eyes "You hear he's a good teacher, from who? Your pamphlet?"

There is silence on the line for a few long moments and Dean feels his stomach twist. "Sam?"

"Well....the preschool miiiiight be owned by Gabriel's family and he might be Cas' older brother so I might know that Cas is a good teacher from him."

There is another loud laugh in the background and Sam's muttered "Shut up."

"You're kidding me." Dean deadpanned, glancing over at Emma for a moment, her eyes were starting to flutter as she tried valiantly to keep coloring. "Your boyfriend who-" He paused, looking at his daughter who was still probably awake enough to hear him and demand another quarter for the swear jar. "s-e-x-t's you during Sunday brunch's family owns the school my kid is going to!?"

Sam sighed "Ok first of all, Gabe is the problem child of the family. The rest of them are perfectly respectable."A muffled "Woooow Sam." comes from the other end of the line but Sam seems to ignore it. "At least try it out Dean. Cas is great, once you meet him you'll be fine with it."

He wanted to argue but Emma's eyes were closed and her head was starting to tilt dangerously close to the edge of the table. "Fine. I need to put Em to bed. If this place sucks I'm blaming you and your stupid boyfriend."

"Jerk." Sam laughed, not even waiting for his reply before hanging up.

"Bitch." He muttered, shaking his head in exasperation as he scooped a mostly asleep Emma up from her seat.

Her thin arms immediately twined around his neck as she groaned, eyes opening slightly to glare at him. "Wanna sleep." She muttered as he set her down on her bed and started to help her into her PJs.

"I know honey." He murmured back, pulling back her mountain of pink and yellow blankets and then tucking them in around her. "Goodnight."


	2. Chapter 2

He officially meets Cas (or as Emma calls him "Teacher Cassie") the next morning when he drops Emma off at preschool.

It isn't the best first impression.

All the parents seem to have dropped their kids off the minute before because when he steps in the room all he seems to be able to see or hear is toddlers throwing fits over leaving their parents. He catches a glance of a pretty red haired woman who is holding one baby in her arms and trying to comfort another screaming child. She smiles apologetically at him and manages a "Good morning" and a quick wave at Emma.

Emma just rolls her eyes (Dean was going to kill Sam for teaching her that) at the chaos and neatly tucks her backpack into her cubby she turns and gives him a quick hug before darting off to a corner and throwing her arms around a man that Dean assumes is Cas sitting there.

Dean gives him a quick look. He's young and fit, with dark messy hair and bright eyes. Overall, not quite the creep that Dean had been worried his daughter's teacher would be.

Cas glances over at him and smiles, shrugging a little helplessly. He's practically covered in kids. One in particular has his face buried in Cas's chest but as Dean watches the teacher says something quietly to him that makes the kid look up and burst into a fit of giggles. Emma laughs at whatever was said as well and she leans over to half lean/half hug the little boy and Dean immediately turns and leaves before he has a breakdown because holy shit dropping your kid off for school was way harder than he'd imagined it would be.

 

The next time he sees Cas is later that day when he's picking up Emma.

He'd been running a little late. His last customer at the garage was being a pain in the ass so he was 15 minutes late by the time he pulled into the now empty parking lot. Dean walked inside quickly, running a hand through his sweaty hair, knowing that he had oil streaks on his face and that there was no way he was making a good impression on Emma's teacher.

He stopped dead when he opened the door though.

Emma had always been a distant kid.

Dean knew that he was one of the only one that his daughter showed physical affection to without being prompted. Even with Sam and her grandparents she rarely hugged them or held their hands and that was ok. Dean was completely fine with his kid being selective in who she trusted.

But here she was, curled up in Cas's lap as he read her a Doctor Seuss book, she was mouthing the words along with him and Dean would have known without even looking that it was "Oh the places you'll go!" that had always been her favorite book.

Cas glanced up after a second, like he had sensed Dean watching him and smiled, nudged Emma gently. "Look whose here, Emma."

"Daddy!" She jumped up and raced over to him, grabbing his hands and pulling him towards the teacher. "Look what I made for Cassie!"

Cas smiled (and holy shit he had a pretty smile, Dean was pretty sure his mouth was hanging open) and held up his arm. It was covered in ragged bracelets with large, bright beads. Dean also noticed a few streaks of glitter on his neck and face and he laughed. "Arts and crafts day?" Dean asked, trying not to let his smirk become that obvious.

"Everyday is arts and crafts day." Cas said with a self deprecating shrug. "It's my own fault, I let them talk me into these things."

"I get that man, she talks me into things all the time." Dean replied, a little taken aback by Cas's voice, deeper than he'd have expected from such a pretty guy. He shook himself, trying desperately to stop thinking of his daughter's teacher with words like "pretty" and held out his hand. "We haven't really been introduced. I'm Dean."

"Castiel." He replied, shaking Dean's hand briefly and then ducking his head, smiling ruefully. "I'm sorry about this morning. Normally things aren't so hectic."

"It's fine. I understand." Dean said awkwardly, pulling his hand back and rubbing at the back of his neck. Why exactly he was getting so flustered over a random guy covered in glitter he didn't know. Sure Cas was attractive but hell Dean knew a lot of attractive people and he could still keep his cool with them. "Hey, I hope we didn't keep you too long, I got held up at work."

"It's alright, Dean." Cas replied, leaning over to grab a weathered backpack off the top of the cubbies. "I'll walk you out."

He tries not to stare as the teacher leads them out the front door but he's fairly sure that he doesn't do a good job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment and let me know if you enjoyed!


	3. Chapter 3

In the end Dean does what every single person with an internet connection will eventually do.

He Facebook stalks him.

It's pretty easy.

It wasn't like there were that many Castiel Miltons in the world.

He types in the name and clicks on the first profile that shows up, immediately seeing that he has a mutual friend with Cas. And of course it's Sam. The guy had to be the most popular person on social media that Dean had ever seen.

He quickly clicks on his profile picture. It's pretty normal, it looked like a date photo, something that someone across the table would have snapped. Cas is looking at the camera, while holding a cup of coffee and his eyebrows are raised as if to say "really? You're taking a picture now?"

Dean scrolls down to the comments. There are 35 likes on the picture (Dean is fairly sure that the most he'd ever gotten was 11) and a few comments. The first one is from a guy named Balthazar Roche (and really, who the hell names their kid Balthazar of all things?) saying "Aw, you used the picture I took. I'm flattered Cassie."

And Castiel's response which had Dean rolling his eyes and smiling like an idiot simultaneously "I thought it really captured the spirit of our friendship. You taking pictures and me being annoyed."

Then he frowned again at the other guy's reply which said "Our "friendship" mmkay babe ;)"

He sighed and clicked out of the photo, rubbing a hand over his forehead.

It was ridiculous to get jealous over something like that. Something which was most likely an inside joke and even if it wasn't, even if Cas _had_ a boyfriend he had no right to be jealous over it. He didn't own Cas, hell, he barely knew him.

Trying to ignore his feelings he turned his attention back to Castiel's profile. He mainly posted pictures and links to articles about teaching and politics. Which was nice, Dean had been friends with way too many people who felt the need to constantly be posting statuses about how they feel at the moment.

He went on his info and scrolled through it, not really looking until he got to his relationship status, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw the "single" and underneath where it said "Interested in: Women and Men"

Dean jumped as his phone suddenly buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out and glanced at it suspiciously, worried that somehow Cas knew that he'd been creeping on him and had gotten his number and was going to call him out on it.

Sam's name was on his screen though and Dean continued to click through the profile as he answered it. "You're friends with Cas on facebook." He said, in lieu of a greeting.

Sam was quiet for a long minute before a long suffering sigh sounded through the phone "You are _not_ Facebook stalking him."

"I might be."

"You are so weird. Can't you just ask him for his number or something like a normal person?"

Dean glared at the computer screen as he read another few comments saying "Lookin' cute hun." from some girl named Meg. "I don't want to date him or anything." He insisted "I just want to make sure he's a respectable teacher."

"Uh-huh." Came his brother's voice. He didn't sound convinced.

"And besides" Dean continued, only half focused on the conversation he was having. "Didn't you go out with Gabriel in the first place because he kept liking your instagram pictures? Don't preach to me about getting together like a normal person."

Sam laughed "Gabriel and I are in an actual relationship Dean. You're probably just passive aggressively staring at all the people commenting on Cas' stuff."

Fuck, his brother knew him way too well. "You're an idiot and I'm hanging up." Dean threatened

"Let me know when you want advice on asking him out." Is the last thing Dean hears before he hangs up on him.

* * *

 

It doesn't help matters that every time he drops Emma off or picks her up Cas is just _there_.

And he always looked good. Dean doesn't know what the hell is his problem. Like who can possibly look that amazing after spending all day surrounded by toddlers?

He's about ready to break. He hadn't had a crush since Tessa in high school and he'd forgotten just how much it could hurt to spend all your time just fucking pining over someone instead of kissing them.

It keeps him up one night, long after Emma had been put to bed and long after he should be asleep if he wanted to be coherent at work. But all he can do is think about Cas. There was something about him that was so intimidating, something about him that was aloof without meaning to be and there was no way Dean felt worthy of being with someone like him.

He finally picks up the phone around 2 in the morning, knowing that there was really only one person who he could talk to about this.

"I was sleeping, Dean." Sam says groggily after a few rings.

"Would it totally traumatize Emma if I dated her teacher?" He asked, the words tumbling messily out of his mouth and sounding not nearly as caviler as he had wanted.

To Sam's credit he didn't say "I told you so" he just paused and then sighed heavily. Dean could hear someone (he could only assume Gabriel) asking what was wrong in a sleep laden voice. "One sec, Dean. Nothing Gabe, go back to sleep." Sam replied, sounding ridiculously tender when he spoke to his boyfriend.

Dean waited until he heard footsteps and the sound of Sam closing a door behind him. "He's spending nights now? I swear to God Sam if you get married before you graduate..."

"You'll kick both of our asses, yeah yeah." His brother replied "Lets get back to the point of this call."

"Yeah." Dean remembered what he'd said and he felt his face flush. Luckily it was dark so he could pretend that it wasn't happening. "What do ya' think?"

"Depends." Sam said, sounding just as obnoxiously practical as always. "Do you just want to have sex with him a few times then find a reason to end it or do you actually want to try and date him? Because if it's the first then yeah, that wouldn't be good for Em."

"Of course I don't just want that, shit Sam." Dean muttered, feeling his blush deepen. His brother didn't exactly sound convinced. "Well sorry Dean but that's kinda how you've been with guys in the past."

"I dated Aaron." He tried, not even sounding convincing to his own ears.

"You dated Aaron for like a month and then just stopped calling him." Sam deadpanned

Dean rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Look, I know. This shit...being with guys, you know it's complicated for me. It still freaks me out."

And that was the root of it. Being with guys, being something other than straight (and Dean didn't even like to put a name to whatever the hell his sexuality was) still terrified him. Even with Dad long gone, probably living with some other wife and kids in the deep south he still had influence over him and Dean knew how he felt about his sons not being straight.

"But you still think you want to date Cas?" Sam asked gently

Dean sighed, staring into the dark "I want to ask him out. Give it a try at least."

"Okay." He said "You know I'm behind you than." Sam paused then snickered lightly "Do you know how much mom would freak if she found out that we were dating a pair of brothers."

Dean rolled his eyes skyward, even as his stomach warmed at his brother's support. "Go back to your boyfriend, bitch."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully the next few chapters will be coming over this weekend so stay tuned!  
> Comment and let me know what you thought!


	4. Chapter 4

The next day they are, once again, running late.

Dean had barely slept after the phone call with Sam, finally drifting off at around 4:30 and he wakes at 7 to Emma shaking his arm and huffing out an annoyed sigh. "Daddy your alarm is loud." She informed him when she saw that his eyes had finally opened.

"Ugh." He muttered, glancing blearily at the time on his phone. "Oh god, Em we're up too late."

"I know." She told him primly, "I got dressed and found poptarts for breakfast."

Dean really doesn't know how he ended up with such a responsible daughter. She must have gotten the same genes that Sam did. Then he looks over what she's wearing and raises an eyebrow. She's wearing a blue frozen dress, a pink tutu over that and a pair of lime green, frog rain boots.

He laughed, sitting up in bed and rubbing a hand over his face. Ok, so Emma did have a bit of him in her as well.

It takes him under 5 minutes to find a pair of grubby jeans and a flannel and herd his daughter out the door.

By the time they are almost to the preschool he chances a glance at the clock, they were actually early because of how quickly they'd gotten ready. "We should run late more often Em, you're probably gonna be the first kid there."

Emma scrunches up her face at him "No, thank you."

They pull into the parking lot a minute later and Dean looks around then sighs, yes they're early, they're so early that there are no other cars in the parking lot, which means no one to unlock the doors and let them into the preschool.

"Great..." He mutters, turning up the radio and leaning back in his seat, ready to relax for a few minutes.

Until another car pulls in and he stares at it with raised eyebrows. It was nice. Not quite as nice as the Impala that his dad had taken with him when he'd walked out on Mom but still pretty expensive looking. Certainly more so than his beat up truck. The windows were tinted but they were rolled down most of the way, probably to take full advantage of the early morning sun. So Dean can see inside. And he sees Emma's teacher.

Cas. With some other dude driving the car.

He stays quiet, he'd given Emma his phone to play games on so he knew that she wouldn't notice anything unless he called attention to it.

Cas is looking at the driver of the car and smiling at what the guy is saying.

Dean can't see much of his face but he notices the bright blond of his hair and the deep v of his shirt and feels his stomach twist up weirdly. Oh god, what if this was his boyfriend? Shit, and Dean had just told Sam that he wanted to ask the guy out.

He leaned back in his chair to keep watching (like the utter creep that he apparently was) as Cas shifted and his smile became less casual and more sly. The other guy smirked and leaned over towards him, a hand reaching up to curl in his hair and holy _shit_ why hadn't Dean noticed just how perfect Cas's hair was for that? Oh god, now he wasn't ever going to be able to think about anything else when he saw him.

"Daddy, I'm booooored." Emma whined from the back seat and Dean started and quickly scrubbed a hand over his face, trying to ignore the fact that he had definitely been acting very creepy with his daughter in the car.

"Sorry Sweetie, we just gotta wait for someone to come unlock the doors, then you can go in." He answered, daring a glance back at the nice car and at Cas who was definitely, OK yeah, he was definitely making out with that guy now.

He waited about a minute, determinedly not looking over at the car until he heard the tell tale sound of a door open and closing and then the purr of the engine as the door drove away. "Ok, your teacher is here, let's go Emma." He muttered, exiting the car and coming around to unbuckle her from her car seat.

Emma bounded out and ran over to Cas (who seemed pretty out of it, he'd walked right past the truck to go unlock the door) "Hi Teacher Cassie!" She called cheerfully and as Dean watched Cas jumped slightly then turned and smiled tiredly at the two of them.

"Hello, Emma. Hello, Dean." He said "You're here early."

"We've been here forever." Emma complained and as Dean watched Cas blushed pink and glanced over nervously at Dean. It was actually fairly adorable.

"Oh really?" He asked, looking over at him questioningly.

"Yeah, no big deal." He shrugged. Because it wasn't a big deal. Or at least, Cas shouldn't feel like it was.

Cas smiled gratefully and unlocked the door, holding it open for Emma to dart inside with a quick wave and a "Bye Daddy!"

He paused for a moment before following the girl into the school. "Um...I'm sorry, I hadn't realized anyone was here this early." He said awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his neck. "That was probably really unprofessional."

"Hey." Dean said, now just feeling terrible for inadvertently making the poor guy feel bad. "It's okay dude, seriously. You didn't know anyone was here, you're allowed to have a personal life you know."

Cas blushed again and smiled wanly "Alright than. I just didn't want you to be uncomfortable, because....you know."

Oh shit, this was sounding weirdly like the time Sam had come out to him right after he'd walked in on him making out with his high school boyfriend.

So Dean said the exact thing he'd said to his brother back then. "It's be pretty damn hypocritical of me to judge you for that."

Cas didn't react like Sam had. He just flushed even more and dipped his head. "Oh. Well....that's good than."

"He your boyfriend?" Dean asked, trying hard not to make it seem like he wasn't totally checking out how adorable the other man looked when his eyelashes brushed his cheeks. Shit, he was so screwed.

The teacher smirked slightly and Dean had to bite his lip to hold back the whimper of disbelief at how fucking cute this guy was.

"No. Just a friend."

Dean laughed, tilting his head back "Wow, my kid's teacher has game. Who'd have thought?"

Cas laughed lightly and took a step back, more towards the door that he was still holding open. "Speaking of your offspring, I probably ought to make sure that she hasn't gotten her self in to some sort of trouble."

"Good plan." He replied, recognizing the dismissal for what it was and stepping away as well, pulling his keys from his pocket and twirling them around a finger. He noticed Cas' eyes fix on his hands and his stomach twisted again, in fear or infatuation or apprehension he didn't know. "I'll see you later than." He says to the teacher, watching as he steps through the door.

"I'll see you later, Dean." Cas says over his shoulder and for whatever reason, it sounds like a promise to Dean's ears.


	5. Chapter 5

He doesn't see him until a week later.

The garage gets busy and Bobby needs him as often as physically possible. His mom has been taking care of Emma a ton which he is starting to feel fairly guilty about. Hell, even Sam had babysat the other night. And when he finally does see Castiel it's not at the preschool. It's at a bar. Because apparently the universe just does not want him to have a professional relationship with this guy.

His shift at the garage has just finished and he's grabbing a drink and burger with his co worker Benny when he sees Cas slip inside the bar, looking just as harried and worn out as Dean has been feeling lately. He sits up a little straighter and Benny immediately takes note.

Smiling in amusement at him he glances over his shoulder "Who's the lucky person you've got your eye on, brother?" Dean rolls his eyes at him. Benny had been ridiculously encouraging about his sexuality ever since Dean had accidentally let it slip after a few too many drinks one night.

"Fuck off. It's my kid's preschool teacher." He muttered

Benny kept looking "Who? Blue eyes? Looks too sweet for you Dean."

"Again, fuck off." He repeated, shifting in his seat, wondering if he should go up to Cas, maybe get him a drink. Maybe this would be the right moment, maybe this was when he was supposed to do this.

"No, man." Benny had turned back to look at him and was shaking his head. "Look at him, he's got a date."

Benny might have had a point.

Cas was looking around the room, very obviously searching for someone and yet his eyes passed right over Dean (and he really wondered about this guy's observation skills because he seemed not to notice quite a bit). Then his expression brightened and he quickly pushed his way through the throngs of people and sat down next to some guy in a dark suit (who was very obviously not the blond that Dean had seen him with before).

"Told ya." Benny said, satisfied with being proven right.

"Shut up." He said, tensely, watching Cas lean in to kiss the guy and watching the way the guy wrapped a hand around the side of his neck to draw him closer and what was it with Cas and super touchy people?

Benny turned around to glance at them again and when he looked back at Dean his face was full of sympathy. "Oh, Brother. You've got it bad huh?"

"I don't want to talk about it." He muttered into his drink, keeping his eyes fixed on the table top, determined not to look at Castiel for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dean is a smitten, jealous idiot and it is all I care about.
> 
> Also, 3 chapters in one night! Y'all should be proud. This is the most productive I've been in a while.


	6. Chapter 6

Somehow, in his haze of exhaustion with dealing with fatherhood, work and a stupid crush, Dean ended up leaving the door unlocked and when he comes home one day, Emma dangling from his arm, his brother and his brother's boyfriend (whom he had vowed to never approve of) were sitting on his couch.

"Heyyy Dean-o!" Gabriel calls waving a beer at him in greeting and Dean really doesn't think that after only meeting the guy twice and overhearing him having phone sex with Sam he should be at the nickname stage.

"Sorry for breaking in." Sam says, he almost sounds contrite but he also has a little shit eating smile tugging at his lips and Dean does not trust him one bit.

"Yeah, not to be rude but why are you here?" He asks, feeling Emma's small hand slip into his and knowing that she was trying to hide behind his legs. She hadn't met Gabriel yet and had always been a little cautious around new people.

"Just to hang out." Sam said, shrugging "I would have called but Gabe thought it would be more fun to just show up."

"And ya left your door unlocked." Gabriel says with an easy laugh "Kinda asking for it." He stands up and walks over to Emma, locking eyes with Dean briefly too gauge if it was alright and seeing that he didn't look too upset knelt down to be at the preschooler's level. "Hi Emma. I'm Gabe, your Uncle Sam's friend."

"Hi" She said softly and Dean sighed, kneeling down next to her as well, he knew that he needed to encourage her to come out of her shell and Gabriel probably wasn't a bad guy. Just an obnoxious as hell one.

"I'm also Teacher Cas' big brother." Gabriel said, grinning at her as she started to inch away from Dean. "I hear that you're one of the best at Arts and Crafts time."

Emma's eyes got wide and she smiled up at him "Yeah, I am! I made a turkey with paint today!"

"Woah!" Gabe said in almost the exact same tone of voice as the 4 year old "That is so cool."

Dean rolled his eyes fondly at his daughter and got up, leaving the two of them to talk and walked over to sit next to his brother.

"See?" Sam said, in that know it all tone of his "Gabriel isn't that bad."

"So he's good with kids." Dean muttered "Doesn't mean I approve."

The younger Winchester laughed and took a sip from his beer (and Dean was fairly sure that that was his beer that they had stolen). "You never approve of the people I date."

"He's too old for you." He replied offhandedly, eyes sharp on his daughter, making sure that Gabriel wasn't setting his beer down next to her or anything.

He could feel Sam's frown even without looking at him. "Ok, lets look at the math for this. I'm 21, Gabriel is 26, you're 29 and Cas is....Gabe!" He paused to shout across the room at his boyfriend "How old is Cas?"

"23."

"So your age difference is even more inappropriate. Hah." Sam turned back to look at him smugly and Dean would love to punch him right now.

"You're such a brat."

Gabriel came back over to the couch and sat down way too close to Sam. "I love your bratty side babe."

"Ugh." Dean would love to punch both of them.

"Stop saying that Daddy." Emma huffed as she came over to sit between him and Sam.

Sam smirked and tucked her under his arm "Em, you are definitely my favorite person in this family."

* * *

 

It's a half hour later before Sam finally gets to what Dean assumes the point of this visit was. "Gabriel agrees by the way. You should ask him out." Sam says, carefully not drawing Emma's attention by saying her teacher's name.

Dean gave him a dirty look "Ever heard of keeping things in the family, Sammy?"

"Well he's his brother so I figured he'd actually be able to give good advice."

Dean sighed but...to be completely honest about it...he was desperate. He just needed to know if he had a chance and if he didn't then he needed to cut his losses and find Emma a preschool with teachers who weren't so attractive and sweet and sarcastic. "Alright, lay it on me." He said, draining the last of his beer and gesturing for Gabriel not to hold back.

"Well" For a minute the man looked like he didn't know where to start. "First of all, as conservative as he looks the guy is a total rebel. I mean, I was pretty hard on my parents in high school but at least they expected it from me. Castiel....his punk phase came out of no where."

"Huh." Dean murmured, caught in between imagining just what Cas looked like in a leather jacket and listening to Gabriel.

Sam nudged his boyfriend, seemed to be reminding him of something without words and Dean tensed up in apprehension.

"Oh right. And he dates a lot." Gabe narrowed his eyes at him "Not that that's a bad thing. It's just something you should know and accept about him before you make some pathetic attempt at asking him out."

He decided to ignore that "Pathetic attempt" jibe.

"Cas does seem....popular.." Dean said warily, not exactly sure what he should be saying to the guy's older brother. The last thing he wanted to do was expose someone's sexual life to their family. That was always awkward.

Gabriel snorted into his drink, obviously taking it in stride, making Emma giggle from where she was curled up under Sam's arm. "Oooh yeah. Castiel has been "popular" since high school. Everyone likes Cas." He reached over to poke Sam in the side, a teasing grin on his face. "Hell, Sammy probably would have gone for him if he hadn't met me first."

Sam mock glared at him "Don't even joke about that Gabe."

Dean matched his glare "And don't swear around my daughter."

Emma looked between the three men and then sighed dramatically and got up "I'm going to sleep." she said, shaking her head and flouncing out of the room.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at the girl as she left then turned to Dean with raised eyebrows. "That girl is going to destroy you when she's a teenager, Dean-o." He muttered, taking a sip of beer.

"Jesus Christ" Dean muttered, leaning his head back against the couch and closing his eyes "Sam, get your obnoxious boyfriend out of my house."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just have one more small scene to write and then I'll have the final chapter ready! Hopefully it'll be out tomorrow or the day after. Have a good thanksgiving babes!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have absolutely no excuse for how long this chapter has taken me. It was basically just a lot of laziness. I'm sorry guys but I hope the length makes up for it. The last chapter will be the epilogue.

Cas glanced at his phone as he stood in front of the mirror, attempting to shape his hair into something work appropriate, already knowing what he would see. Sure enough there was one missed call from Crowley. No voicemail. No text. No _"hey sorry about fucking other people and not telling you about it."_

Cas sighed heavily, giving up on his hair and pulling a loose grey sweater on.

There was a knock on the door and his brother/roommate poked his head inside.

"Cassie, Balth is here-" Gabriel trailed off as he noticed the lit up phone on the counter. "Cas, please tell me you're not still hung up on this."

"I'm not hung up on anything." Cas replied, shoving past his older brother to grab his coat and book bag off the hook on the door.

Gabriel followed him down the hall. "Crowley is a dickhead. You've known that for years, Cas."

"I don't want to talk about it, Gabriel." He replies, stopping short when he gets to the kitchen.

Balthazar is sitting at the table, drinking some sort of sugary coffee-like substance that Gabriel probably made him.

"I'm ready Balth, lets go." Cas says shortly, not liking the look in his friend's eyes, it looked much too similar than how Gabriel was looking at him.

"Look, as your older brother I need to be able to talk to you about this." Gabriel said, stepping in front of him and trying to meet his gaze.

"And as your best friend slash friend with benefits I should be able to talk to you about this too." Balthazar cut in, taking a sip from his drink and leaning back in their creaky kitchen chair.

Both Cas and Gabriel rolled their eyes at that remark but Cas knew he wasn't getting out of this easy. "Fine. Let's talk. I should have realized that it wasn't a relationship, it was just the same stupid "lets argue and then have sex" thing that we've been doing since college." He shrugged "It's my own fault. And now it's done, so you don't need to worry, alright?"

Gabriel's expression softened and he looked, for a moment more like an older brother than Cas had seen in years. "Cas...." He trailed off, looking, for once, like he wasn't sure what to say.

"I'm going to be late for work." Cas said shortly "Can we go, Balthazar?"

The blond was looking between the two brothers worriedly but he nodded and stood up. "Yeah, lets go. Thanks for the coffee Gabe."

* * *

 

 

The car ride was quiet.

Cas kept his gaze firmly fixed out the window and after a few instance of clearing his throat Balthazar too kept silent.

Cas finally turned to him once they pulled into the parking lot of the daycare. "Thank you for the ride." He meant to also say "and thanks for not pushing me." But he is fairly sure that Balthazar got the unsaid message.

"You're welcome Cassie." His friend said, giving him that smile that was more familiar to Cas than anyone else's.

Cas smiled slightly back and leaned in, across the seat to kiss him but Balthazar pushed him gently back into his seat.

"What's wrong?" He asked, vaguely insulted. Balthazar never turned him down.

"Maybe we should stop doing this for a while, Cas. Just be friends for a bit, see how it suits us." He said, indecision plain on his face.

"Alright" Cas raised an eyebrow at him, confused "May I ask why?"

Balthazar sighed, looked like he knew that he was going to regret saying this. "It's just....you obviously need to get over that Scottish douche and I know for a fact that you've also got a crush on one of your student's dads. So....I don't know. Maybe you need to not have any attachments for a while so you can pursue that."

Cas flushed "Who says I have a crush on one of my student's dads?"

His friend shot him an incredulous look "Cas, you've been talking about "Dean" and how "sweet he is with his daughter" and how "hard working" for about a month now."

He'd adopted a sickly sweet tone while mimicking Cas and the teacher could feel his blush worsening. "Screw you." He muttered, unable to stop the little smile that was pulling at his mouth "Fine. We'll just be friends. But we're still carpooling."

Balthazar smirked back "Fine. Now go to work, Teacher Cassie."

* * *

 

It's around 3 pm at work, in the middle of working on an old Toyota that Dean finally just thinks "fuck it".

He shakes his head and takes a deep breath.

It was time to be done with this stupid crush or infatuation or whatever the hell it was. Cas very obviously already had plenty of people to date and Dean didn't even have any proof that the guy even liked him like that. At some point it was just pointless to continue. He'd be better to cut his loses and go find some fun blonde at a bar to date for a couple weeks.

This resolution lasts for about an hour.

Until he gets a call from a number that he doesn't know on his cell. "Hello?"

A nervous, familiar voice sounds through the phone. "Hello, is this Dean?"

_Fuck._

"Yeah. Hi Cas." He says quickly, the words jumbled up and awkward and altogether not the way he wanted to sound.

There is a heavy silence for a long moment and Dean realizes a second too late that recognizing his voice that quickly was actually really creepy of him.

"Yes." Castiel says, clearing his throat "I'm sorry to bother you. There was a slight altercation a few moments ago between Emma and another student. I was wondering if you could come pick her up a little early today so we could talk about it?"

He is oddly caught on the fact that Cas was calling him wanting to talk when his brain catches up to what was actually being said. "Wait. What type of altercation?" He demands, suddenly terrified because holy shit he was going to freak out if someone had hurt his daughter. "Is Emma ok?"

"She's fine Dean. It wasn't too bad. We just want to make sure that you're informed on what's going on in school." Cas soothes him, he sounds calm and collected and incredibly stiff and Dean tries to real in his emotions. He had the feeling that Cas wasn't a big fan of dealing with temperamental people. "Ok, ok I'll be there in half an hour."

He pulls into the school parking lot exactly 26 minutes later, barely taking the time to park the car completely. He couldn't help the anxiety that was twisting in him. It was so hard just having Emma away from him for most of the day, the idea that something had happened, that there had been some sort of "altercation" terrified him.

Dean quickly walks into the school, remembering just as he steps in to stay quiet in case some kids were taking a nap.

Cas was kneeling next to a little boy around Emma's age, his hand on his shoulder, talking to him a low voice. His tone was serious but Dean could see that the kid seemed to be listening and after a moment the boy leaned in and hugged Cas before wandering off to the other room.

Cas stood, his palms dragging over his thighs as he did and Dean attempted to keep his eyes on the guy's face.

The teacher looked exhausted. There were shadows under his eyes and his hair was a wayward mess. Dean felt his brow furrow in concern. This didn't look like the type of tired that one got from working all day or not sleeping well. Cas looked absolutely drained. Like he'd been riding a wave of emotions all day and wanted to be done with it already.

"Hello Dean." He said, stepping towards him, a smile that almost looked real on his face. "Thank you for coming so quickly."

"No problem, Cas." Dean replied, still a little worried about him but not quite sure how he could go about bringing it up. He really could not afford to be even more obvious with his crush. There was no way Cas didn't notice how he was always blushing and tripping over his words around him.

"Emma is through here." Cas said, turning and leading Dean into the next room. It looked like a playroom. There were a few kids, including the boy that Cas had just been talking to playing with a train set. Emma wasn't with them. She was sitting against the wall, arms folded over her chest and a pout on her face. She lit up when she saw him though and stood, ready to run over.

Cas stopped her though, holding up a hand and saying "Emma, honey, why don't you go be Teacher Anna's helper for a little while? I'm going to talk to your daddy for a minute."

Her face fell but she nodded and went down the hall to where Dean assumed Anna was.

Dean was impressed. Emma had looked pretty close to throwing a fit. When she was in that kind of mood it was almost impossible for Dean to get her to follow directions but Cas seemed to be able to do it without a problem.

"So what happened?" He asked, turning towards the other man.

Cas chewed on his lower lip (No, Dean. Ignore it.) "Well....Emma is...you know that she's a very smart girl. Sometimes that makes it difficult for her to interact with the other kids."

Dean sighed "I know. It's hard for her to connect with them."

"She has been having a hard time with Andy, the boy you saw me speaking with." Cas gestured towards the boy. "Today I suppose she reached her breaking point because she pushed him down a few times and attempted to get him in trouble for things that he didn't do."

Dean could feel his mouth open and close because that....that did not sound like his precious little girl. No way had Emma been bullying a kid. If anything, Dean had been worried that she was the one being bullied.

Cas put a hand on his forearm gently. "It's fine Dean. Most kids go through phases like this at some point. It is completely natural. Emma is just at a slightly higher maturity level so she is going through it at a younger age."

Dean nodded, still not quite processing what Cas was saying. "So...what do you want me to do?"

Cas tilted his head to the side, his hand was still on Dean's arm and Dean felt like he was going to have a hand print branded into him when he took his jacket off later. "It would be helpful if you spoke to her about how she should react when other children upset her. Maybe talk to her about healthy ways of dealing with her emotions."

Dean nodded and smiled at the teacher. "Thank you. You've helped a lot with her. She likes you."

A flush rose to Cas' face and his hand dropped from Dean's arm "Thank you. She's a wonderful child. I like her too." He paused then glanced up, the blue of his eyes startling Dean with their intensity. "I like both of you."

Dean blushed as well and then, emboldened slightly by the other's words swallows and says around the sudden lump in his throat. "You know, I saw you the other night. At the Roadhouse bar? I meant to go say hi."

The red in Cas' cheeks darkened and he shifted nervously. "Oh. I um, I didn't notice you."

Dean laughed, trying to put him back at ease. "I could tell. Is _that_ one your boyfriend?"

Cas shrugged "He used to be. I....I kind of broke it off with him."

"Oh."

"Yes" Cas looked nervous and unsure of himself and Dean tries to shove down the urge to comfort him.

He pretends that that simple word doesn't make his stomach twist into knots. "That's too bad. You okay with it?"

The teacher smiles slightly, biting at his lip "It was a really unhealthy relationship. We'd been on and off for years. It was time for it to end."

He looks almost upset and Dean actually did reach out this time to put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Cas. That shit always sucks." He glanced down the hall where he can hear Emma's high pitched giggle "Um, would you want to maybe come over for dinner? Once your shift is over?"

Castiel's head jerked up and their eyes met and Dean immediately flushed "I just-sometimes being around people can be nice....ya know....after a breakup?" He pulls his hand back from Cas' shoulder to rub the back of his neck, internally cursing himself. Why exactly he had to be such a blathering idiot around this guy he did now know. "Only if you feel up to it though." He said hurriedly "Don't feel obligated."

Cas stared at him for a heavy moment then a smile broke out across his face "That would be nice."

* * *

 

Dean wasn't exactly sure why he had to do shit like this.

Why the fuck had he invited Cas to dinner? To dinner in his tiny apartment with every surface covered in Emma's toys and crayons. To dinner in his tiny apartment with his oil covered work boots on the floor and the couch that had been bought for 15 dollars at a thrift store.

At least he was competent in the kitchen.

If he was going to serve food on his chipped, mismatched plates at least it was going to be his amazing lasagna.

Emma tugged on his sleeve and Dean looked down and sighed.

She was a mess.

They'd had a talk about her little bullying problem in the car and she was still tear stained. "Yeah, Sweetie?" He asked, leaning down and swinging her up into her arms.

The food was practically done and Cas wasn't coming over for another 20 minutes. He could spare some time to make his daughter presentable.

Emma's arms went around his neck. "I'm sorry, Daddy." She mumbled into his shirt and Dean smiled.

"It's okay, Em. I'm not mad. I just want you to be nice to your friends and if you're mad about something you can come talk to me about it. Or if I'm not there you can talk to Teacher Cassie ok?"

Emma nodded "Kay."

He sighed with relief, glad that his daughter had somehow not ended up as stubborn as he'd once been (or worse, as stubborn _and_ selfish as her mother had unfortunately been).

* * *

 

A knock sounds at the door at precisely 6 pm which makes Dean smile. He always tried to be on time to things (even if he didn't always succed so it was nice when other people made that effort as well). He lets Emma answer the door, listening from the kitchen as his daughter starts talking a mile a minute. It really was amazing how confortable she was with her teacher. Em had always been that way with him and most of the time she was with Sam and Mary as well but it took a lot to pull her out of her shell and Cas seemed to have done that almost immediately upon meeting her.

"Hello, Dean." The teacher said as he was pulled into the kitchen by Emma.

Dean turned from the stove and smiled at him. "Hi Cas. I hope you like lasanga?" He asked lightly, trying not to be obvious as he looked him over.

God, did he clean up nice. He'd obviously showered right before he'd come over, his hair stood up in wet spike around his face and the green button up he had on made his eyes look unnaturally bright. Dean was a fucking goner.

"Of course." Cas said with a soft smile, sitting down with Emma at the kitchen table. "So I suppose we should talk about the metaphorical elephant in the room."

Dean froze. Shit. Was it that obvious? And was Cas really going to call him out on it? In front of Emma?

"What's that?" He asked, trying to keep his voice level.

A light laugh sounded "The fact that our brothers are dating. I didn't connect the pieces until Gabriel mentioned that he'd met Emma the other day."

Dean felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders and he snickered "Oh yeah. I would have talked to you about it but I hadn't realized that it was starting to get serious until recently." He flipped off the heat on the oven and knelt down to pull the lasagna from the stove, smiling in relief at the smell that immediately filled the room. Hah, he may be awkward as hell when he had a crush but at least he could always woe someone with his food.

"Oh my god that smells amazing." Cas said, awe in his voice.

Dean smirked and reached for some plates to start serving. "Didn't Sam say that Gabriel was in culinary school? I'd think that you'd be used to awesome food."

He could practically hear the pout in Cas' voice "He says that my palette isn't refined enough for his food."

Dean scoffed and started placing placing steaming plates in front of Cas and Emma "Don't worry, I'll cook for you instead, you don't need refined anything for my food."

Cas raised an eyebrow at that and Dean flushed, immediately turning and busying himself with his own plate and grabbing two beers from the fridge for them.

* * *

 

 

The conversation was easy it turned out. They had enough in common, Emma and Sam and Gabriel that there was plenty to talk about but Dean couldn't help but still be nervous. This was feeling an awful lot like a first date. Even with his daughter sitting between them the laughter was almost flirty and it suddenly seemed like a really bad idea to have put a candle on the table.

As much as he wanted to date Cas, to flirt with him, hell, just to be around him he knew what this would look like to an outsider.

He had invited the guy over to _console_ him over his recent breakup. He wasn't going to be that asshole that tried to sleep with someone to "make them feel better". As much as he wanted to, he wasn't going to be the guy who took advantage of the situation.

He'd been that once, okay, he'd been that a _lot_ of times and he wasn't going to become that guy again.

But over the course of the dinner Dean had noticed Cas' gaze, which had started out friendly and eager was slowly turning more narrow, more heated.

The teacher was watching him steadily across the table, a slight smile resting on his lips and a single finger was circling around the mouth of his beer bottle as he nodded along to the story that Emma was telling him.

Dean gulped, just a little terrified for whatever that stare had in store for him. He glanced at his watch "Okay, time for bed Em" He said, standing up and clapping his hands. It was actually a little early for her to go to sleep but it wasn't like she knew how to tell time yet.

The girl pouted "I want Cassie to put me to bed." She retorted, folding her arms over her chest. Damn, she looked like she was already digging her heels in. This would be a long one.

"Emma, Cas is with you all day at school. I think he deserves a break don't you?" He said, smiling apologetically at the teacher, hoping that his daughter would listen. Every so often logic actually did work on her.

"No!" And sometimes it didn't.

"Dean" Cas spoke up, he looked amused with the pair of them. "It's it's okay with you, I don't mind putting her to bed."

His tone was so sweet, so helpful that Dean couldn't help the way his stern voice and posture just melted when he turned to look at him. "If you want." God, even his voice sounded smitten. He really needed to get it together. And fast if the looks that Cas had been shooting his way all evening were anything to go by.

The teacher smiled and stood up, taking Emma gently by the hand and letting her pull him in the direction of her bedroom.

It's only a few minutes later when Cas comes back.

Dean had been resisting the urge to eavesdrop and had instead busied himself with dishes.

The teacher looked serene, happy, and altogether much better than he had before.

Dean was glad for that at least. Even if nothing came out of tonight Dean knew just how much breakups sucked and he had been telling the truth when he'd said that he wanted to help him unwind and forget about it. "How'd that go for ya?" He asked with a smile, wiping his hands on a dish rag as he turned to face him.

Something shifted in Cas' expression as he glanced at him and Dean felt that familiar knot in his stomach. There was something about the way Cas had been looking at him tonight, like he had been sizing him up this whole time and had just found him worthy. It really made him get how the guy seemed to have so many people chasing after him.

"It was fine." He said shortly. "She's a sweet girl, Dean. You've done a good job with her."

Cas had leaned on the counter, hands settling behind him and eyes half lidded and content. Everything about him was the very nature of inviting and Dean could feel himself shifting closer, almost without consciously trying to.

"I did the best I could." He said, feeling thick and stupid and all together out of his depth with this man.

Cas smiled "Oh?"

And shit, Castiel was going to be the death of him. To hell with it. He'd had a thing for this man for months and here he was finally sending him signals so obvious that Dean could be blind and still see them. It was time he just took a chance and went for it. Sure, he'd said that he didn't want to be that guy that took advantage but Cas was giving him the go ahead and there was no way he was smart enough to resist that.

"Yes." He replied shortly, this time taking a conscious step forward to press Cas back against the counter and place his hands on his hips (he had wanted to put them in his hair or on his neck but those places seemed sullied now). "This okay?" He asked, leaning in to nose at the other man's ear, letting out a shaky breath and smiling as Cas shivered in response.

"I never have been very good at saying no." Cas whispered before grabbing a handful of Dean's shirt and dragging him in to meet his lips.

For a minute Dean is 15 again and has no idea what to do before instinct kicks in and he quickly parts Cas' lips, tongue darting in to drag along the underside of his upper lip.

Cas shudders in his hands and, not to be outdone, bites at his lip, laughing brightly into his mouth when Dean twitches in surprise.

Dean pulls back and smirks at him, hands moving down his hips to the backs of his thighs, and he tugs him up, places him easily on the counter and steps back into the v of his legs. He's moving in to kiss him again because holy shit, does his mouth look pretty all bitten up like that, when Cas stops him.

"Wait a minute." He says softly, placing a hand on his chest and holding it there, firmly, like he expects Dean to push at it.

"Shit, sorry." He says automatically. Immediately worried that he'd gone too far, pushed for too much too soon. "Are you okay?"

Cas gives him a steady look. "It probably isn't a good idea for you to fuck me."

Dean isn't _exactly_ sure how he's supposed to respond to that.

Cas looks nervous, like he's worried about how Dean will react. "It's just, I'm Emma's teacher. Sex can make things awkward, I don't want that to happen with us. I thought I could do this but I can't, not like this with you. I'm sorry." He says it all in a rush, not meeting Dean's eyes, but not removing his hand either.

"Ok." Dean replies after a moment, moving his hands from Cas' thighs to his own pockets and taking a few steps back. "Ok, first of all, you don't ever need to explain yourself or say sorry if you don't want to fuck. Just say no. You're not obligated to give a reason why. And also" Here he waits until blue eyes meet his to continue. "having you over wasn't about having sex with you. It wasn't calculated, I wasn't trying to take advantage. I hadn't even expected the kiss."

Castiel raises an eyebrow at him "Don't try and act like you didn't want to have sex Dean. I might be somewhat socially inept but I do have eyes."

Dean sighs in frustration and runs a hand through his hair "Ok, well do ya also own a mirror? Because it's pretty hard not to react like I did when someone like you is kissing me."

He didn't look annoyed or confused by the compliment but than, from what Dean had seen of his romantic life, Cas wasn't exactly hurting for people to pay him attention.

"So....if you didn't want to have sex than....what was the point of having me over?" Cas asked in a small voice and Dean really wanted to hug him or kiss him again but he knew he couldn't mess up the already mixed signals the poor guy was already getting from him. God though, did he wish that there was something, anything he could do to show him that he was more than just a warm body in a bed. He deserved more than all the others in the past had given him.

"I...kind of wanted to ask you out." Dean muttered, feeling a flush rise to his face. The room in quiet for a long minute and Dean would really like to go kill himself right now. "Shit, this is not going the way I wanted." He's looking at the floor and determinedly not glancing over at Cas but he still hears his footsteps and sees his hands reaching out to cup Dean's face and pull it up so that their eyes meet. Castiel's eyes are very blue this close up and he can see now that they look glassy and fuck, he was going to hate himself if he had made Cas cry.

Cas smiles sweetly at him. "If you really mean that, I'd love to go out with you some time Dean." Then he leans in and kisses him again. It's softer than last time, gentler, just closed lips pressed against each other for a few moments before pulling away and for Dean at least, it feels like coming home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my lord they actually kissed. After chapters of ridiculous one sided pining it happened kids. I really hope y'all enjoyed this, let me know what you thought!


	8. Chapter 8

**Two years later:**

They'd seen it coming for a while now. Sam and Gabriel had been inseparable for close to three years and Sam had graduated a few months ago so when the couple walked into the apartment that Cas and Dean now owned and asked to talk to them Cas had looked over at him and given him a little knowing smirk.

Dean nodded and scooted a half asleep Emma gently off his lap and next to his boyfriend then stood up and pointed at Gabriel. "Alright shorty, you're with me."

Gabriel trailed after him looking nervous, which really gave Dean a fairly inflated sense of pride (but hey, he was a big brother. This was the kind of shit that he lived for).

They walked into the kitchen and Dean leaned against the counter and folded his arms, fixing Gabriel with a look that very clearly said "choose your words carefully".

" _Sooo_...." Gabe said, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot.

Dean could hear the soft murmur of voices that was his brother and boyfriend and he smiled. Cas was already getting started on Sam. He need to catch up.

"So." Dean raised a brow at him "What'd you want to talk about, Gabriel?"

"Um...." The guy blushed and stared down at his hands for a minute than finally seemed to come to a decision and he glanced up to meet Dean's stare. "Sam and I want to get engaged and we wanted to talk to the two of you before we announce it."

"Huh." Dean tried to form an expression of surprise on his face but he wasn't sure just how convincing it was. "Well" He fixed him with a heavy stare that Cas liked to call his "getting ready for when Emma starts dating glare". "Are you sure that Sam doesn't deserve to get his career going first? I mean, do you really want him to give that up for some older guy living off his trust fund?"

That was a low blow. Especially considering the fact that Castiel had a trust fund just as large as Gabriel's and that Gabe had been a pretty successful chef for a couple years now. But hey, he liked throwing the whole "spoiled rich kid" thing in the face of all the Milton siblings.

But it did have the desired outcome.

Gabriel twitched, looking even more nervous. "Well....I mean...we'd stay engaged for a year at least. I mean, I'd be fine with being engaged for as long as Sam wants, honestly, it's just about what makes him happy."

That had been what Dean was fishing for. He let his hard expression soften just a bit and pushed himself off of the counter and stepped towards Gabriel, pausing to rest a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"You guys can do whatever you want with your lives Gabe, that's fine. Just know that if you break his heart I will come after you and I do have a license to carry a firearm."

Gabriel just nodded weakly.

Dean walked back into the living room with a large smile on his face when he saw Cas sitting on the couch next to Sam. Cas looked pleased with himself and Sam, well Sam looked terrified. Gabriel slunk out from behind him and hurried over to his boyfriend (well, now fiancee, Dean mentally corrected himself) grabbing his hand to drag him from the room. Sam offered up a quick wave before they left, the door slamming behind them.

Dean smirked and sat down next to his boyfriend. Emma was curled up on his lap asleep, a daisy chain that Cas had made her tangled through her hair.

"I'm assuming you threatened my brother in some way." Cas said softly, taking Dean's hand and threading their fingers together.

Dean laughed "Maybe. I'm guessing you did the same to Sam."

The man shrugged, a sly smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "I may have told him that no one would ever be able to find his body if he hurt Gabriel in any way."

Dean let out a low whistle. " _Shit_ , you can be scary sometimes babe."

Cas glanced up at him through his lashes. His other hand was carding through Emma's tangled hair and he smelled like coffee and the leftover curry that they'd eaten for lunch and holy shit sometimes Dean could not believe that he had him.

"Yes, but you love me anyways." He replied simply, leaning in to peck at Dean's cheekbone.

Dean's hand tightened on Cas' "Yeah. I really, really do."

* * *

 

It wasn't all easy though.

In fact, at times it was so hard that Dean felt as if he was banging his head against a wall.

Castiel was well aware of the jealousy he felt towards his exes and whenever they were in the midst of an argument Cas could be found on the phone with Balthazar or Meg or Crowley, passive aggressively having the type of deep existential conversation that he never could with Dean.

And Dean knew that he could be pigheaded, knew that he and Cas didn't really have a lot in common. Knew that sometimes he said thoughtless, offensive shit that had Cas biting his tongue.

But despite all of that, somehow, it was working. Somehow they were working. Somehow, no matter what was going on he could still look at him and all that would go through his mind was "fuck am I in love."

Sometimes Cas looked at him with this huge loopy, smitten smile. Sometimes Dean woke to find that he was already up but still in bed, chin in hand and eyes soft as he watched him.

Sometimes Dean would look at him playing with Emma, would notice the way that he had become even more of a mother hen over her than Dean had ever been.

Sometimes Dean saw the longing in Cas' eyes as he watched them together.

It's on their second anniversary that Dean gives him the pamphlet. It had been burning a hole in his pocket for 6 days now.

Cas stared at it with wide eyes and glanced back at Dean, his mouth hanging open.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

And that was all there was to say really.

* * *

 

They finalize the adoption almost exactly a year later. It had been a year of paper work and Emma acting as healthy and well adjusted as was humanly possible to prove to the agency that they were capable parents.

They take an orphan named Claire home from the agency that night with exhausted grins lighting up their faces.

She's a year old with big blue eyes and a head full of wispy blonde hair. Cas is sitting in the back seat with her and Emma clutching the girl tight to his chest.

He looks like he's terrified of dropping her and it makes Dean grin as he glances at them in the review mirror. All new dads had the exact same look.

" _Relax_ Pa." Emma said, reaching out and gently smoothing back Claire's tangle of hair. "I'll help."

Cas managed a tight smile. A smile that turned more real as Claire shifted in his arms and mumbled in her sleep. "Even if she cries a lot?" He asked teasingly, catching Dean's eye in the review mirror

"Yep." Emma replied brightly, unphased by the fact that she now had a new sibling.

Cas was still looking at Dean, his hands were running circles on Claire's back. He looked calm suddenly, serene. "Dean."

"Yeah?" He asked, eyes flicking briefly to the dark deserted road as he turned onto their street.

"I'm really glad that you happened to me."

Dean doesn't even try to stop the grin that unfolds across his face at Castiel's words.

He turned on his left blinker as he pulled into the drive of their place and stopped the car, immediately twisting in his seat to look at his little family.

"I'm really glad that you happened to me too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had such a good time writing this story and I hope you all did as well! Comment and let me know what ya thought!

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all had fun reading!
> 
> Comment and let me know what ya thought!
> 
> EDIT: I now have a fandom blog!! Come talk to me at crossroadsbela.tumblr.com!! I'd love to hear from you guys!


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